Shifting Sands Threaten
Caribbean Coasts

It's a fact of nature: As sure as the sea crashes onto the beach and
then drags slowly away, the sands of the Caribbean are altered every minute
of the day. It's a fact of economics: The countries and territories of the Caribbean
depend on their beaches for important sources of income, mainly from tourism.
Since the mid-1980s, the Coast and Beach Stability in the Caribbean project
(COSALC) has been working with government officials
in the Caribbean to help them maintain the economic value of their nations'
beaches even as the sands shift beneath their feet. After a strong emphasis
on science and training, COSALC now plans to focus on education and influencing
attitudes.

Illustration by Allan Núñez ("Nano")

COSALC is a joint project of the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
and the University of Puerto Rico's Sea
Grant College Program. The project assists island nations to minimize beach
erosion, reduce storm impacts, and respond to rising sea levels. While nature
can severely alter shorelines, the biggest threat to Caribbean beaches is human
development, according to COSALC coordinator Gillian Cambers.

"We know that beaches are not static, but this was seldom taken
into account as coastlines in the Caribbean were developed for tourism during
the past few decades," she explains. "If you spend a little bit extra and do
development the right way, you can have beaches plus economic growth."

A simple but needed change, she suggests, is to stop building
hotels directly on the beach. She says that while technicians with government
agencies and conservation groups understand the need to manage beach development,
"many politicians believe that too many regulations about where hotels can and
cannot be built may frighten off developers."

To broadcast the message that beaches must be managed, COSALC
is providing equipment and training to environmental
and media agencies in Anguilla, St. Lucia, and Granada, so that they can
produce short video clips about the coastal environment. "To change attitudes
and actions, we need to reach the people who vote," Cambers says.

To reach future voters, COSALC is working with the Caribbean
Sea Project, a UNESCO education initiative, on a new campaign called "Sandwatch."
Sandra Gift, sub-regional coordinator for the UNESCO-Associated
Schools Project Network, says the idea for Sandwatch came from youngsters
who attended a Caribbean Sea Project workshop in Tobago in 1998. "After talking
to one another," she explains, "they realized that their descriptions of the
sand on their beaches at home were all very different. So they decided they
wanted to learn more about sand."

In October, the Sandwatch initiative will bring teachers from
Caribbean islands, along with Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, and the Guyanas,
to the island of St. Lucia. Teachers will receive training in beach monitoring
activities that they can share with other teachers in their respective nations,
and then demonstrate to children in participating schools. Students will monitor
pollution and beach erosion for one year, analyze their data, and share the
results with schoolchildren in other nations. Gift notes that an important element
of the campaign is to encourage students to work with local communities to solve
the beach management problems they identify.